Our
story begins this morning, with a stranger coming to town; after all, as Mark
Twain tells us, there are only two stories: a man goes on a journey and a
stranger comes to town. This story
begins with a disheveled old man walking up a dusty road toward a town. There is a man in his field on the outskirts
of town; he can see the dust rising before the stranger comes up over the
rise. He stops leans on his plow, and
watches for a minute to see who it is.
He strains his eyes, and as the man makes his way up the road, he comes
into view piece by piece. It takes a
second for him to recognize the stranger, the realization shows on his
face. He calls one of his boys over to
him. You can see him say something to the lad and the young man takes off up
the road. Before the stranger can reach
the man and his field, a group of men have gathered, they are conferring. You can hear them identify this stranger as
“the prophet,” “the judge.” There is a
mumble about how his sons are no good, but he is God’s man, but what is he
doing here? The king has fallen out of
favor with him. He is displeased, says
God is displeased. He hasn’t spoken to the king in quite a long time. What is he doing here? What does Samuel have to do with us? They
talk and come to a decision. As Samuel
approaches them one of them calls out, “Do you come in peace?” Seriously a screen play writer could not
have written this better. “Yes I come in
peace, I have come to make sacrifices to God, sanctify yourselves and come with
me.” And as things progress you see him making a point to assure that all the
boys from one particular family are sanctified.
After
the sacrificing is done, he calls Jesse, the father of this family, over and
one by one inspects his boys. The eldest
one is tall and strong and handsome, an obvious leader surely. Samuel examines
him closely, looks up into the man’s strong face. The voice of God speaks
quietly to Samuel telling him to not look at outward appearance because God
looks at the heart. Samuel looks away from the man disappointed, shaking his
head, “no, no he is not the one.” He
looks at the next son, shakes his head again, “no, not the one.” He goes through the next, and the next, and
the next, until seven of Jesse’s sons have passed before Samuel, each one is
not the one. None of these are the one,
do you have any other sons, (are you holding out on me?). Jesse is slightly taken aback and a little
shame faced. Yeah, he has another son, the youngest, “he is out tending the
sheep and playing his harp. He really is of no account, but if you want me to
call him in from the fields I can.” He
sends one of the others and shortly our hero, a handsome young man, with a
beautiful smile and captivating eyes comes up over the hill running, wondering
what his father wants with him. The boy
is still out of breath as Samuel looks him up and down, looks him in the eye and says, “You, you are
the one.” Samuel anoints this one to be
king.
We
all remember grade school gym class, I know I do, I remember when the teams
were being chosen, whether it be kickball, dodge ball, or esp. basketball, as
you can imagine, I was not the first to be chosen, or the second one. I was
almost always the next to last, you know right before the girl who broke her
foot last week. This is what is going on
here except all the kids who are used to being to being picked first, aren’t
being picked at all, and you can’t help but wonder why. What’s wrong with them? Are they, like Saul, out of favor with
God? What hidden flaw do they have? What malady of the Spirit does God see that
Samuel and the onlookers are missing?
It
is easy to get caught up on why God does not choose Jesse’s other seven sons,
and why God chooses David instead. Since
God looks at the heart and not outward appearance, the assumption is that there
must be something defective with these young men that only God can see. And
David must have some phenomenal inner trait that only God can see. But the text does not say that. Nothing bad is said about any of these young men,
just that they are not chosen. David is
said to be handsome and have beautiful eyes, we do not know what God sees when
God sees into David’s heart, but God chooses David, and the story of that
David’s slow progression toward Kinghood begins.
And
Jesse’s other sons are left standing in the field un-chosen and not good
enough, or at least from this point on we forget about them. But it is not so much that they were
unchosen, just that they were not chosen to be king. I am sure if they followed God and were
faithful to God they were chosen for something else in their lifetimes, to live
quiet lives as strong men of God, leaders in their town, in their clan, in
their tribe, to be good farmers or shepherds, husbands, fathers. They have stories, they have callings, they
were chosen but not chosen to be king.
That
is the thing to remember when we look at this anointing story, this story of
the choosing of David. David was not
simply chosen, as if being chosen is an end in itself. No one is ever chosen
just to be chosen. David is chosen to be king.
David
is chosen to be king, because somewhere in that harp playing sheep tending
heart God sees that this one, this one can make a good king. David is not simply chosen he is chosen to do
something specific. You can imagine as
David kneels before Samuel, out of breath from running in from the field, the
scent of sheep still on him, and the notes from the last song he was playing on
his harp still in his mind, that he is thinking to himself, ”is this guy for real? God has chosen me? To be king?”
It
is not so much that when God looks into David’s heart, God sees a phenomenally
spiritual man who is so amazing that God just has to choose this one to be
king, but more along the lines that when God looks into this young man’s heart,
God see in him the potential to be a great man of God, an excellent leader, the
king of God’s people. David is not
chosen to be king because he is already amazing, but because God knows that
this harp playing shepherd has the potential, if he trusts and relies on God he
can be the king these people actually need.
When
God looked into the hearts of his brothers, God saw something else for them,
something else a little less flashy, a little less remembered for all time, but
important, pertinent and valuable each in their own way, just not chosen to be
king.
The
fact of the matter is not everyone is chosen to be king. There is only one king, that is one of the
things about being king, when all are going well, there can be only one. When there
is more than one there is a problem and things don’t go down so peaceably. God chose David to be king. But God also
choose Jesse to be the father of a king and God choose David’s brothers to do
other vital things in their community and in the lives of their loved ones.
God
chooses and God chooses based on criteria we may never understand. We may not understand why God choose those
around us to do the things that God is choosing for them to do. I may never really know why God choose an
ultimately, shy, awkward, who had few friends, to be a pastor, but God saw
something at 13 that those around me did not yet see and something that I most
definitely did not see in myself. But
God chose me, not simply for the sake of choosing, God chose me to do that which
God enabled me to do. Not that which I
could do on my own, not that any of this was within my own power to accomplish,
but God called me to do that which could only be accomplished if I walked with
God and trusted God.
God
calls us all. This is not like gym
classes where some of us are standing last in line but God chooses us all first
to do what it is that God calls us to do.
When God comes before us God does not pass us by, but chooses us to do
that which God knows, once enabled and empowered by God, we can accomplish and
will accomplish. It is an old worn out
saying but it is true. God does not call
the enabled, God enables the called. But
God does call. God calls us all. In Ephesians Paul says some are called to be
teachers, and some to be evangelists and some to be preachers. The fact of the matter is that we are all
called by Go to do something, we are all empowered by God to do something. We are all chosen, but we are not simply
chosen to be chosen, to be special, we are all chosen; chosen because God knows
our hearts; chosen to do that which God will enable us to do; chosen to do the
work and the will of God in this world, to glorify God and to further God’s
kingdom. But we are all chosen we just need
to trust and rely on God in all things to enable us to be the person and do the
things God has chosen for us to do.
No comments:
Post a Comment